At Odds With Harvard President, Black-Studies Stars Eye PrincetonCornell West and Henry Louis Gates are mad at Harvard President Larry Summers. They are mad because he asked them to help reduce grade inflation at Harvard, and suggested that Dr. West work on an scholarly piece that is befitting his title at Harvard. They also say Summers has not spoken out "strongly enough" about affirmative-action. It amazes me that these people in academic America are always saying they promote openess and diversity of views, but then they seek to quiet any opposing views. I say he should let them go to Princeton. There are more African-Americans with brains than these two. This would open an opportunity for someone else to be able to offer their perspective. The only problem is that Harvard is not likeley to get anyone that would create real internal debate in the African-American community. Please, dont try to get Dyson, Please. BTW: Jesse Jackson is going to meet with Summers. Is this part of his helping opressed blacks? ( Even those that earn six-figure salaries)

Chile / Argentina: A tale of two countries and their economiesThis article focuses on how Chile has transformed its economy using free-market principles. This has created opportunities for investment, and had allowed their economy to grow. The writer explains five main things that make Chile an example of democracy in Latin America.

Blacks v teachersTwo of the Democrats’ bedrock constituencies are heading for a fight over school choice
Tamela Edwards, a young black journalist, asked Vice-President Gore why he so adamantly opposed school vouchers, which allow parents to choose where to spend their education money, while sending his own children to private schools. “Is there not a public or charter school in DC good enough for your child?” she asked, to applause. “And, if not, why should the parents here have to keep their kids in public schools because they don’t have the financial resources that you do?”
. Last year, a national opinion poll conducted by the Joint Centre for Political and Economic Studies found that 57% of blacks support vouchers: especially people under 35 (75%) and people with children in the household (74%). Blacks and whites agreed that education is the most important problem facing the country. But blacks were more likely than whites to think that the public schools are getting worse—and more likely than whites to support vouchers.
The first is that pro-voucher blacks have established a lobbying group to plead their cause. The Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO) is only a few months old.
The second change is the emergence of a younger generation of black leaders in their late 20s and 30s…. For this generation, vouchers is the new civil-rights issue.
These outspoken younger blacks are having an effect on the established black leadership. Andrew Young, Kurt Schmoke (a former mayor of Baltimore) and Martin Luther King III have all embraced vouchers.
The hitch, of course, is that most old-style black leaders remain opposed. No black congressman has been willing to break with the teachers’ unions on the issue. The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People also follows the teachers’ union line that vouchers will destroy the country’s public schools. Black teachers and administrators in urban school systems regard the idea as anathema. Urban school boards are huge political and financial machines: the Philadelphia school board, for example, has 25,000 employees and an annual budget of $1.6 billion.
the two most important voting blocks in the population—white suburbanites and the elderly—are hostile to vouchers….A study by Paul Petersen, a Harvard professor, of black children who were selected by lottery to receive scholarships to private schools in three cities, Dayton, New York and Washington, found that they pulled ahead of their peers who remained in public schools. Meanwhile, they are not damaging public schools. In Florida, for instance, the threat that children would receive vouchers to attend private schools spurred the 76 worst-performing schools to make big academic strides.

Reform plan would make schools payThe Bush education bill will require failing schools to reimburse costs of tutors and provide cash for more teacher training
Included in the bill is something Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, refers to as a "safety valve" -- a way to "provide children trapped in chronically failing schools a way out."
Parents whose children attend lackluster schools will be able to choose from a list of state-approved providers and -- at their school's expense -- get private tutoring for their child, including programs offered by religious providers. Parents will also be able to transfer their children out of failing schools, with the school picking up the cost of transportation to a better-performing campus.

Found this on townhall.com website. I believe Ms. Malkin is right on point! Enjoy!!Stop giving America a bad rap by Michelle MalkinEven if you have only a passing interest in today's popular music, I urge you to pay attention to the loathsome record nominated this week by Washington Post staff writer David Segal as the "Best Album" of 2001. It's a stomach-turning example of anti-Americanism disguised as highbrow intellectual expression.
According to Segal, "Party Music" by a rap group called "The Coup" topped all other musical works produced this year. Segal praises the album's "jarring ingenuity, soul and wit." The "poetry" of lead rapper Boots Riley "dazzles." The songs are "masterfully entertaining" and "daggone funky."
Segal seems hardly bothered by the original cover art for Riley's album. The revolting photo depicted the Oakland, Calif.-based rapper and his sidekick -- militant left-wing anti-capitalists -- partying in front of a doctored image of the World Trade Center being blown up. While the twin towers burn, a sneering Riley poses in the foreground with a guitar tuner being used as a bomb detonator. His sidekick, "Pam the Funkstress," stands defiantly with a conductor's baton in each hand while fireballs engulf the buildings.
The rappers posed for the picture, which Riley proudly describes as a "metaphor for the capitalist state being destroyed through the music," last spring. Days after the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center, Riley's record company pulled the photo. But after paying hollow respect to the victims at Ground Zero, Riley protested Warner/Elektra's decision to abandon the cover art. A self-identified "communist" and son of a Black Panther lawyer, Riley says he wanted to spread the message that "the blood that happened on (Sept. 11) is on the hands of the U.S. government."
Segal, the enamored music critic, shrugs off Riley's murderous and morally equivalent imagery as harmless "bad timing." He laments that the uproar over the photo overshadowed The Coup's lyrics, which he deems "hip-hop's finest rhymes this year."
Fine. Let's put aside The Coup's bloody terrorist fantasies for a moment, and take a closer look at the group's "poetry." The first single released off the album, titled "5 Million Ways to Kill a CEO," includes the following verses:
5 million ways to kill a CEO
Slap him up and shake him up
and then you know
Let him off the floor
Then bait him with the dough
You can do it funk or do it disco ...
Toss a dollar in the river and when he jump in
If you find he can swim, put lead boots on him and do it again
You and a friend videotape and the party don't end
Another track, titled "Lazymuthaf-cka" (which Segal calls "amusing"), attacks American entrepreneurs and businessmen -- the very kind who worked at the World Trade Center and died by the thousands on Sept. 11:
You ain't never learned to drive or tie your shoe
I got my ear to the street and my eye on you
You got a secretary to write down your thoughts
On how to make us work hard and fatten up your vaults ...
You're a lazy muthaf-cka! Lazy muthaf-cka!
You're a lazy muthaf-cka! Lazy muthaf-cka!"
And the song "Pork and Beef" indulges in violent anti-cop-bashing:
If you got beef with c-o-p's
Throw a Molotov at the p-i-g's
Cuz they be harassing you and me
You got to understand that we still not free ...
The Coup has been singing its crude "Hate America" tune -- and earning praise from media sympathizers like Segal -- for years. One of the group's most infamous songs, "(Expletive) On Your Grave," includes a scene in which Riley tours Arlington National Cemetery and stops to urinate on George Washington's burial ground. Instead of being grateful for a country that allows him to peddle such garbage for profit, Riley boils with hypocritical resentment. The American flag, he says, "symbolizes oppression, exploitation, racism, slavery and murder."
I'm sick of America getting a bad rap from miserable "artists" like Boots Riley. He belongs in a capitalism-free cave in Tora Bora, spewing his "poetry" around an al Qaeda campfire. But I'm even sicker of Riley's cultural defenders in the elite media. Sept. 11 brought home the lesson that vile ideas have bloody consequences -- no matter how "daggone funky" they may sound to mush-headed music critics. We continue to ignore the intellectual enablers of anti-Americanism at our peril.

Welfare Reform Offers ParadoxWell, the recession has arrived, and Wisconsin's vaunted welfare program is facing its toughest test.
The caseload has climbed for eight straight months. The number of people receiving cash aid is up 25% since February. Demand for food stamps has soared. And every month, scores of welfare recipients crash into Wisconsin's deadlines: a two-year limit on state-subsidized community service jobs and a five-year limit on cash benefits.
The Wisconsin welfare program is riding out the recession just as it rode through the good times: helping some families into proud self-sufficiency and casting others out with no way to pay the rent.
They are eligible for food stamps, free health insurance, generous child-care subsidies, even loans for car repairs. They can get help writing a resume and checking for job openings online. But they cannot get cash aid to pay the landlord and keep the heat on.
Roderick Ritcherson, an executive at one of the private agencies that runs the welfare system in Milwaukee, agreed.
"If someone is honestly trying, the last thing we want to do is cut them off," he said. But Wisconsin's program makes the assumption that those who honestly try will make it. "If someone is not trying," Ritcherson said, "in all fairness to the taxpayers, the state should not be subsidizing that person."

Glad We Are Not Fighting UsAmerica now enjoys a level of global military and political influence not seen since the Roman Empire in the age of Trajan. Besides the obvious preponderance of carrier battle groups, strategic bomber wings, and tactical fighters unrivaled by any other military, much of the current power of our armed forces is attributable to the Western military tradition itself. The Western way of war is a natural expression of the core values of our European heritage that derive from the Greeks, and have evolved through the Roman imperium, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the European Enlightenment. Consensual government, individual freedom, secular rationalism, free markets, egalitarianism, and self-criticism and self-audit, when applied to the battlefield, result in better-disciplined, better-equipped, better-supplied, and better-spirited armies — whether now or at Salamis, Lepanto, or Midway.
But in the last two decades America, for better or worse, has evolved beyond the traditional Western paradigm, in reaching the theoretical limits of freedom and unbridled capitalism to create a technologically sophisticated, restlessly energetic, and ever-changing society — whose like has never been seen in the history of civilization. Unlike the more staid consensual nations — such as Japan, or those of Europe — America has no real class system. It has transmogrified from a nation of European immigrants into a truly multiracial society. Despite the energy of the contemporary race industry and the efforts at disunity by multiculturalists and separatists, America is emerging more united than ever — if not by a vision of shared values, at least more pragmatically through intermarriage; the vibrant popular culture of music, television, fashion, and sports; and the shared, breakneck quest for material security and affluence.

Clinton, leave well -- and bad -- enough alone Until now, however, only one president has set out on a methodical campaign to redeem his presidency in the eyes of historians.
That was Andrew Johnson, who announced on his return home to Tennessee after a calamitous administration that culminated in his impeachment, "I intend to appropriate the remainder of my life, short as it may be, in the vindication of my character."
Bill Clinton, who has gathered a collection of political aestheticians to remove the unsightly pockmarks and blotches from his eight years in the White House.
It is an effort condemned to failure.
If it were not so vainglorious an exercise it would be laughable. Rather than let the slow-grinding mills of history produce a balanced and fair picture of his incumbency, Clinton, like some ancient despot, has summoned his chamberlains and masters of the rolls to embellish the accomplishments of his reign.
When lesser figures apply cosmetics to their curriculum vitae and the puffery is exposed, it is profoundly embarrassing. When a former president becomes a revisionist of his history, the shame is greater.
Clinton always has been a reckless user of people. He lied to members of his Cabinet about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky and sent them out to deceive others, making them part-owners of his falsehoods. No great respecter of truth, Clinton now enjoins his flacks and fabulists to bowdlerize history.
Dispatching a crew of euphemists with whitewash brushes to spruce up his blemished incumbency is unseemly and will only cause him to suffer ridicule, which in light of his important achievements, is undeserved.

Why the Education Bill Is Likely to FailThe main problem is that it financially rewards failing school systems. If a school does not meet the goals set for it, then it will recieve additional aid to help meet those goals. The good thing, is that it does require national testing, and will require public release of each schools scores.President Bush wanted a reform bill so badly that he may have compromised his way into a toothless one...after almost a year of work getting the 1,000-page bill through Congress, the hard part is yet to come. This is a compromise with several weaknesses that could continue to make meaningful education reform a distant dream.
A major flaw of the bill is its lack of teeth to punish states that don't comply. Senate and House lawmakers struck from the final version a House provision to withhold federal money from states that fail to meet new standards.
Indeed, the President got only some of what he wanted in the Elementary & Secondary Education Act of 2001. He won strict new requirements that will force pupils in grades 3 through 8 to take standardized tests in reading and math and to show progress from year to year. Test scores will be made public, and parents with children in poor-performing schools will be allowed to transfer them to a better, local public school.

Powell proves critics wrongRobert Novak defends Powell against some conservatives, that view him as a pacifist. Donald Rumsfeld's emergence as the media superstar fighting terrorism does not mean Colin Powell is a failure. Rather, the secretary of state since Sept.11 has registered multiple policy successes: conducting a coalition war, building ties with Russia and supporting a Palestinian state.
This agenda has come under relentless attack from the core constituency that elected George W. Bush president. Neo-conservatives, the Old Right and some centrist Democrats are unhappy with Powell's initiatives. He could not have survived without support from President Bush.
Still to be determined is Iraq policy. Contrary to his critics, Powell is not soft on Saddam Hussein.
Powell quickly reached agreement with Rumsfeld. The defense secretary wanted assurance that considerations of coalition would not interfere with military operations. Powell assured him it would not, and began the tedious task of coalition building: the secretary of state globetrotting and heads of government parading to see the president. The process warmed and expanded important relations with Pakistan and Russia.
While neo-conservatives and many Republicans indicted Powell for moral equivalency between Israelis and Palestinians, he accomplished a policy breakthrough. He came under merciless attack after inadvertently mentioning the word ''Palestine'' in an early appearance before Congress. But after Bush called for a Palestinian state in his United Nations address, Powell could then, at Louisville, ask both sides to recognize two states living side by side.
Powell feels that it is a duty for him and Bush to talk bluntly to both Israelis and Palestinians.
Shortly after the terrorist attack, an influential national security conservative told me that Powell would make an excellent secretary of housing and urban development but was a disaster at the State Department.
The nation can be thankful for that disaster's performance the past 100 days.

Danger for Sierra LeoneSierra Leone's political future has been thrown into doubt because key militia groups have failed to co-operate with the disarmament process. Both the pro-government Kamajor group and, crucially, the opposition Revolutionary United Front (RUF) have apparently baulked at handing over heavy weaponry - such as rocket-propelled grenade launchers and anti-aircraft guns - to the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (Unamsil).
This is being seen as a skilful political move because the RUF is hampered by a lack of international credibility. The US government recently added the RUF to its new 'terror exclusion' list. The rebel organisation has been accused of selling diamonds in contravention of UN security council resolutions.
The RUF is not the only political body hoping to prevent Kabbah from attaining a second five-year term in office. Already some 23 political parties have sprung up to contest the election.

East Africa & Terrorism East African governments and local warlords are already hedging their bets and trying to make the best of a possible U.S. intervention.
U.S. officials have been gathering information on suspected al Qaeda training camps in Western Somalia, near the Kenyan border. However, the Ethiopian government and Somali warlord Hussein Mohammed Aideed are apparently hoping that American troops looking for terrorists in East Africa will also help them settle their old accounts. Ethiopia accused its Eritrean neighbor of mobilizing troops in a buffer zone set up after a two-year border war between the two countries ended last December - a charge immediately denied by Eritrea. In a bid to gain American attention, Ethiopia also claimed that Eritrea is helping al Ittihad al Islamiya, a radical Somali Islamic group believed to have ties to Osama bin Laden.

Clinton and Aides Lay Plans to Repair a Battered ImageFrustrated that his image has been battered since he left office, Mr. Clinton summoned several of his aides and advisers on Wednesday to devise ways to remind the public of his accomplishments and defend his legacy against criticism…..Mr. Clinton's advisers said part of the discussion was over how active the former president should be in stumping for Democratic candidates next year.
Bill Clinton just does not understand the appeal of ex-Presidents. They are suppose to be diplomatic, low-key and most of all very quiet. The best thing he can do for his legacy is to dissapear for a long period of time. Even Nixon was able to regain some stature after leaving the public eye. Clinton has such a large ego he can only see himself. He is correct, to worry about his place in history. It would actually benefit him if the economy would have continued growing after he left office. This would have allowed him to lay claim to some long term economic impact.

SURRENDERED NATION I.S.0. IMPERIALIST VICTORIf this is a war against terrorism and not a Eurocentric war against Islam, the conclusion is ineluctable: We must attack France. What are they going to do? Fight us?
I love Ann Coulter, some people feel she goes too far and is too sarcastic, but she does expose liberal ideas as blatantly stupid. We all know the French take honor in opposing common sense, if it does not originate with them. (Probably because it is an unimaginable concept to them). She basically lays them out, as a pacifist country just waiting on another stronger force to dominate them.

U.S. developing missile interceptorThe United States is proceeding with a project meant to intercept cruise missiles. The Pentagon program focuses on the development of a subsonic miniature interceptor that can track and destroy cruise missiles. Iran has procured cruise missiles and several other Middle East states are considering programs to develop similar low-flying projectiles.

Does Welfare Cause Terrorism? In a nice inversion of the standard leftist argument, Mickey Kaus says, "In fact, there's a good argument that 'welfare benefits + ethnic antagonism' is the universal recipe for an underclass with an angry, oppositional culture...Work, in this sense, is anti-terrorist medicine."

DEMS TALK OF CARL-ANDY DREAM TEAMNEWLY named state Democratic Chairman Herman "Denny" Farrell is secretly trying to forge a united Carl McCall-Andrew Cuomo ticket against Gov. Pataki.
That's the hot rumor in state political circles, where a McCall-Cuomo ticket against Republican Pataki and little-known Lt. Gov. Mary Donohue was widely described as formidable and, possibly, even unbeatable.

The CBC is grandstanding for publicity. Why should he meet with them? They are not really interested in dialogue, they just want a press conference on the White House lawns, where they would scream about how the President does not understand their community

The national group representing Black fraternities and sororities has called off a proposed boycott of Black Entertainment Television, saying it will meet with BET officials soon to discuss how the two groups can assist each other.
How more self-destructive could they have been? Lets boycott the only black television network, being run by blacks, to prove a point. What point?

Condoleezza Rice's handling of foreign issues is most impressive. She should seriously consider running for public office once her tour of duty with the White House is over.
There is talk that she may be the VP if Cheney does not run in 2004. SMccray

How universities can help the war effort -- The Washington TimesThe American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) recently issued a report criticizing colleges and universities for their failure to defend Western Civilization and recommended that American History and Western Civilization be required courses of study.... the top-ranked 55 colleges and universities in the country no longer require the study of Western Civilization or American History.
This is why it is so easy to infringe on peoples rights. People have no clue what the Constitution even says.

The Usoma Video: I have only seen parts of the video on the different news channels, but I did not even want to watch the whole thing. There really is no point. Most Americans already believe he is guilty.
I think the fact that he claims credit privately but not publicly says a lot about him. It shows the same cowardice that he is showing by hiding, while sending others to their death. Most terrorist organizations will claim credit for their acts, but nobody has claimed credit for 9-11.

Jesse Jr has a DreamActually it is a nightmare that has already been experienced by millions of people world wide. But global failure has never stopped bad ideas before. He wants to make America a "More Perfect Union" by adding 8 amendments to the Constitution. The amendments include the right to work, comprehensive and universal health care, safe and affordable housing, a high-quality public education, equality for women, a safe and clean environment, fair taxes and the right to suffrage.It is called communism, and has failed, but Jesse feels that we should take the largest economy in the world and destroy every reason why it has grown. The arrogance of proposing 8 Amendments to the Constitution should be the first sign that nothing rational could come from this idea.

Black Americans Are Still BuyingTwo seemingly disparate occurrences. A publisher told me recently that generally first novels by African-Americans have larger first printings than those by white authors, because they sell better. And I became aware of a new, remarkable book of photographs and text about the black experience in America since World War II that has 37,500 copies in print, a substantial amount for such a book other than those depicting Sept. 11... An example is the picture-and-text book "In Our Own Image: Treasured African-American Traditions, Journeys and Icons" (Running Press) by Patrick Henry Bass and Karen Pugh, which went into stores at the end of October with a first printing of 15,000 copies, at $30 a copy. Running Press, which incidentally is not a black publishing house, now has 37,500 copies in print, with more to come. The book's more than 300 photographs, collected by Ms. Pugh from professional photographers and scrapbooks and shoe boxes, depict Americans at school, in suburban homes, dressed for visiting, at the beach and hiking, playing in bands and marching for causes....The white publisher who spoke about the larger first printings said that many first novels by black authors sell well enough not just to cover their advances, but also to earn some royalties for their writers. Which doesn't happen that often for white first novelists. But that doesn't mean black writers always get advances as large as white writers do for first novels, and advances for first novels, with certain exceptions, aren't large enough to live on. First fiction by African-American authors has a greater potential for sales because blacks are ravenous for books relevant to their experience, and until recently there have not been many available. Moreover, there are significant outlets for their sale in addition to chain bookstores. There are the black independent bookstores, the black book clubs and an ever-growing number, almost an explosion, of black reading clubs. African-American books sell well in stores like Wal-Mart, and Essence magazine is a powerful engine of sales. So when the first batch of a new African-American novel arrives in stores, there's a population ready. Which shouldn't be too surprising since storytelling is a natural ritual of many black families. Max Rodriguez, publisher of QBR: The Black Book Review, said: "We are oral, and now that oral tradition is being translated into stories in print for the first time. This leads to devouring of novels that will be talked about, making for strong word-of-mouth sales."
And of course, there is this: For a very long time now African-Americans had very few books that spoke to their unique experience. Now there are many, and they love that, and many say reading such books is not a luxury but a necessity.

Blacks file lawsuit vs. Cracker BarrelBlacks file lawsuit vs. Cracker Barrel
NASHVILLE, Tenn.--Twenty-one people filed a $100 million federal lawsuit against Cracker Barrel restaurants Thursday, accusing the Tennessee-based chain of widespread racism by segregating black customers in the smoking section and denying them service.
It was the largest civil rights lawsuit against a restaurant chain since Denny's settled a $46 million discrimination lawsuit in 1994.
The suit, filed Thursday in federal court in Rome, Ga., accuses Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc., based in Lebanon, Tenn., of systematic discrimination and documents acts of alleged racism in 175 cities in 30 states.

Big Blu- New 30,000 lb BombNorthrop Grumman has briefed Air Force officials on a concept to field a 30,000-pound guided weapon, called 'Big BLU,' that could be used as a penetrator to destroy hardened targets that may house enemy leaders or weapons of mass destruction, DEFENSE DAILY reported on Friday.

Rangel says if forced to choose, he'd pick Pataki over Cuomo"If I had the choice today I would vote for Pataki," Rangel said in a telephone interview at his Manhattan home.
This is a huge blow to Cuomo, and another messega being sent to the Dems that the old way of doing business is no longer acceptable.

The Sun , a British tabloid, reports that bin Laden "has ordered the wives of his cornered al-Qa'ida fanatics to fight Allied forces."
How can they aim with their faces covered up. Hey, the men are running like little girls, so why not give the women a shot. The women may get smart and shoot the Taliban. "Who you gonna hit with that stick now, Mr. Mullah Man!?"

Mullah Omar and Bin Laden are not in a hurry to get to their 73 virgins. The 9-11 terrorist should be looking up from hell, and be very pissed off. It shows that it is easier to get someone to commit suicide for a mission, than to do it yourself.
I do not understand why Omar and Bin Laden did not turn themselves in to the UN. If they did, and claimed they wanted the death penalty, the liberal media would make them idols. Every word they spoke would be reported, they could continue to run their organization from a comfortable jail.

Adam's mark to pay $2M to Black students, HBCUsThe Adam's Mark hotel chain agreed to pay $2-million to settle a race-discrimination lawsuit brought by five Black college students who stayed at its Daytona Beach, Fla., location while attending the 1999 Black College Reunion.

No Spin Zone- O' Reilly Offers a Challenge to Blacks:Here is where the problem lies. Often bad behavior by blacks is condoned by whites and other blacks. Excuses are made. And many whites fear being brutally honest with blacks because they don't want to be branded as racially insensitive.
Blacks in America simply need the white establishment to stop being afraid of them. And to treat them as though they lived next door. As the terror of 9-11 showed us, we are all in this together. Let's start acting like it.

Dispute Erupts Over Seat on Civil Rights PanelThis is nuts. Chairperson Berry, who thinks the Commision is her personal political tool, seems to think she can tell the President what to do. She is irresponsible, and needs to get a real job, or at least pretend to be an intellectual. Bush is apointing someone she does not like, so she is threatening to not swear them in.

A Conciliator as CEO (washingtonpost.com)Progress. Richard Parsons has been named next CEO of Time Warner. He is a conservative African-American, and will now run one of the largest entertainment businesses in the world. He has been politically active in the Republican party for years, and is also Co-Chair of President Bush's Social Security Reform Commission.

Zell, You Da Man: For a democrat, Zell Miller is okay - he gets it. Here's what he has to say regarding John Ascroft's appearance on the hill today. "These nit-pickers need to find another nit to pick. They need to stop protecting the rights of terrorists. Why in the world would we try our own soldiers with this system of justice, but not some foreigner who is trying to kill us? It's crazy."
This from Lucianne.com

State sells birth data to Web siteThe birth records of more than 24 million Californians have been sold by the state and posted on the Internet, offering easy access to critical information needed to create fake identities. By logging onto a genealogy Web site, people can gain access to such personal data as someone's place of birth and mother's maiden name, which can then potentially be used to access bank records and other sensitive material. At a special hearing Wednesday on privacy, state leaders demonstrated how easy it is to get the building blocks for identity theft. Using the free genealogy Web site with the California birth information, a legislative aide typed in the name of California Attorney General Bill Lockyer and quickly came up with his mother's maiden name, along with the date and county of his birth. Under current law, California sells birth and death records. The site, Rootsweb.com, claims to be the oldest and largest free genealogy Web site.
Do you trust politicians to handle your info?

Abortion Opponents Demand Feds Pull the Plug on Planned Parenthood Foes of Planned Parenthood believe the money the organization receives from federal, state and local governments is unnecessary because of the millions of dollars Planned Parenthood is able to raise on its own.
Stop Planned Parenthood International (STOPP) and Concerned Women for America (CWA) claim Planned Parenthood uses the $363 million it receives annually from the federal government on programs that promote teen sexual activity.
"We have tracked Planned Parenthood's income and expenses every year since 1987 and there has never been a year where they haven't made money," Sedlak said. "The minimum they have made is six million dollars, and the year before last, they made $125 million in profits, and through all of this time they have been raking in millions and millions of money from our federal government, from our state governments, and our local governments." Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has also called for an end to Planned Parenthood's public funding.
This is where tax dollars are going!

The worthless U.N.:Anti-Israel vote shows leaders in la-la landON THE SAME DAY that the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas released a video tape saying that hundreds are preparing to besiege Israel in suicide missions, the United Nations once again voted essentially to blame Israel for the violence in the Middle East and urge the tiny nation to give up territory in exchange for peace.

Deficit duplicity -- The Washington Times Democratic leaders claim President Bush's tax cuts are largely responsible for the expected disappearance of the budget surpluses and the economic slump that has deepened into a recession.
Yet even a cursory examination of the numbers shows that Mr. Bush's 10-year, $1.3 trillion tax-cut plan has played only a very small part in the expected elimination of the surplus over the next two or three years.
Let's start with this fiscal year's 2002 budget, which will likely end in the red by next September. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected earlier this year that the government would end the fiscal period with a whopping $313 billion surplus. The cost of the Bush tax cuts during this same period will be "only" $38 billion. In just the past three months, Congress has spent an additional $75 billion to $100 billion in the war on terrorism.
However, a comparison of the large surplus projections made by the CBO for the 2001-2004 period with the year-by-year tax cuts costs over this same period shows how little the tax reductions figure into the declining surplus equation.
CBO projected surpluses of $281 billion for 2001, $313 billion for 2002, $359 billion for 2003 and $397 billion for 2004 - totaling nearly $1.4 trillion. The tax cuts that are to be phased in over this period will cost $74 billion, $38 billion, $91 billion and $108 billion respectively, totaling $311 billion.
By the way, we finished the 2001 fiscal year budget, which ended Sept. 30, with a $127 billion surplus.
The Democrats' claim that the tax cuts are directly responsible for the economy's weakness is equally silly. The economy has been slowing since the middle of last year during the Clinton administration. More than a million manufacturing jobs were lost in July of 2000.
Unemployment continued to rise during the end of 2000, from 5.5 million in October to 6 million in January, before Mr. Bush took office.

The Terrorist Have Failed. This article by Jeremy Lott, senior editor of Spintech Magazine, does a good job of showing that the terrorist have failed. These are just excerpts from the article.
If body count or media coverage are the yardsticks, 2001 was a banner year for terrorists.
But substitute a different set of measures--namely, effectiveness in advancing a political cause--and this year begins to look more and more like a cautionary tale for future would-be terrorists of how not to proceed.
President Bush had run on the promise of a "more humble" foreign policy, willing to withdraw troops and accommodate foreign countries..., the administration signaled that it wanted a more "hands off" approach to the peace process. Earlier in the year, Powell chastised Israel for the "disproportionality" of responding to suicide attacks.
In this climate, the best thing to do to accomplish bin Laden’s stated objectives would have been... nothing.
It wasn’t to be. Sleeper agents were activated and the largest act of war on America since Pearl Harbor was inaugurated.
The long-dormant American war machine, to switch metaphors rather abruptly, has been geared up to the extent that the only question is which regime is next: Iraq or a target yet to be named?
If Bin Laden and Al Qaeda's desire was the withdrawal of America from the Muslim world, then the failure is total and complete.
An alternative explanation, one that takes into account the frenzy of consumer activity that followed the liberation of Kabul, is perhaps even more damning: Muslims, especially relatively poor ones, desperately want more contact with both the governments and the products of the secular, commercial West. Either way, history will likely record September 11 as the beginning of the end of radical Islam.

We Picked the Right Guy A poll by Andres McKenna Research in which 76% said they prefer George W. Bush as a wartime leader, vs. just 15% for a hypothetical President Gore. "In New York and nationally, among liberals, boys, girls, old, young, rich, poor, overly educated and undereducated--everybody--the sensation is 'Hey, we picked the right guy,' " says Michael McKenna, who conducted the poll. Our favorite poll finding: "Asked which they worried about more, receiving anthrax in the mail or receiving an IRS audit notice, half of Americans feared the IRS more, while 32 percent said anthrax."

More on the traitor Taliban member. The nut does not fall far from the tree. Walker's parents appear to be "self-indulgent baby boomers who steeped their son in a soup of moral relativism." His father, David Lindh, showed up on "Larry King Live " When King asks Lindh about his son's view that last year's attack on the USS Cole was legitimate, Lindh replied:
We did have a difference of political views on that issue. . . . And we just had a little father/son debate, much like my dad and I used to have over Vietnam war, frankly. We had a father/son disagreement on that issue.
Debate? they had a debate! Some things are not debatable, killing people for no reason is not debatable. Did they also discuss if Hitler really was "evil" or just different? This is not Vietnam. They should have sent him to counseling. There are some values that are undeniable, and the value of life is one of them. Lindh adds: "I don't know of any information, any suggestion of any information indicating that he's done anything wrong"--though he acknowledges "he appears to have been a combatant with the Taliban."
Of course not. It is debatable if taking up arms against your country for an enemy that is trying to destroy it, is wrong. Supporting the Sept 11 attacks , that is of course also debatable. Even setting aside the TRAITOR part, he was part of a brutal regime that shot people in front of crowds for minor crimes. Nothing wrong? The parents should be sent to jail with their kid.His father tells Larry King: "We want to give him a big hug and . . . a little kick in the butt for not telling me what he was up to, and for not getting my permission, because I would not have given him permission to go to Afghanistan."
In prison he will get more than a kick in the butt. I prefer to see him recieve the punishment for treason--the maximum penalty is death.
But its debatable if it is really death, or just long sleep.

Heretical Ideas asks a good question.
WHAT IS GOING ON? So let me get this straight: In a world in which the US has launched a devastating attack against terrorism, but also a world in which it has given it's commitment to a Palestinian state, why is there increased terrorism against Israel?

Black Democrats Push School Prayer Kevin Curran, NewsMax.com
Thursday, Dec. 6, 2001
It was not surprising to see several state legislatures consider school prayer bills in the aftermath of Sept. 11. What was surprising was who sponsored some of those measures.
In Florida and Pennsylvania, the principal sponsors of bills to bring God back to the classroom are not conservative Republicans but black Democrats.
In Tallahassee, the state House in April easily passed a bill written by Rep. Wilbert "Tee" Holloway, D-Miami, to allow student-led prayers at graduations and student assemblies. With no sponsors in the state Senate, the measure went nowhere.
Things will be quite different when the next session convenes in January, Holloway vowed. As a parent, Holloway said prayer has been taken from him and his children. Under his proposal, students can recite non-sectarian prayers with no guidance from school administrators at events where attendance is not required.
This bill would not violate U.S. Supreme Court decisions banning prayers at commencements and football games. Holloway explained these are solemn events and students are volunteering to lead the prayers.

'One Nation Under God'

The Sept. 11 attacks "rallied the country to realize we are all one nation under God," Holloway told NewsMax.com.
When asked if sponsoring a school prayer bill was an unusual move for a legislator with a "D" after his name, Holloway said it was "unfortunate, and maybe we should as Democrats" support more legislation like this.
Holloway knew he would get little support from fellow Democrat legislators, some of whom told him they were "offended by the bill and feel it is unconstitutional."
Next year, Holloway is confident the bill will pass both houses. He will have a companion bill in the state Senate this time – but could not get a fellow Democrat to sponsor it. Two Republicans will sponsor the measure in the upper house.

End the Silence
Holloway said the bill definitely did not call for a moment of silence. "Why would you want to silence me when I want to speak to my God and savior?" Holloway asked.
Silence is the aim of a measure overwhelmingly approved by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in October. While teachers in government schools previously had the option of calling for a moment of silence before class, the bill would make it mandatory.
The prime sponsor of the original proposal was also a black Democrat, Rep. Thaddeus Kirkland of Chester. The measure specifically says the time "is not intended to be … a religious service or exercise, but shall be considered as an opportunity for silent prayer or meditation on a religious theme … or a moment of silent reflection on the anticipated activities of the day."
The language was eventually appended to another bill requiring all schools to display U.S. flags and all students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance or sing the national anthem every day. The measure passed the lower House on a 200-1 vote and is now before a state Senate committee.

"At a time when our nation is standing together against hate, it is essential that we put prayer back in our schools," Kirkland said. "We would not only be adding prayer to our schools, but unity, peace and solace," he added.

Some school districts are not waiting for legislative action. In the Los Angeles suburb of West Covina, the school board recently gave first approval to a mandatory moment of silence. Board President Mike Spence told the Los Angeles Times on Sunday that the idea had been talked about, but after Sept. 11, "children and staff need time to reflect or pray."

Amend the Constitution?
While all of these proposals were drafted with an eye on U.S. Supreme Court decisions, one congressman believes the best way to avoid constitutional questions is to change the U.S. Constitution.
Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., plans to reintroduce his proposed constitutional amendment that would read, in part, "the people’s right to pray and to recognize their religious beliefs, heritage or traditions on public property, including schools, shall not be infringed."
It was brought to the House floor in June 1998 and got a plurality of the votes cast, 224-203, but fell short of the required two-thirds majority. Adding it to the Constitution would also require a two-thirds vote in the Senate and ratification by 34 state legislatures.
Istook’s measure is the real concern at Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. Group spokesman Rob Boston said moments of silence and the posting of "In God We Trust" or "God Bless America" signs are constitutional.
The signs have both civil and religious connotations, Boston told NewsMax.com. As for moments of silence, "most students just ignore them," Boston said.
One of the aims of the Americans United organization is to help educators and parents find ways to integrate religion and classrooms. Boston claimed the group encourages after-class Bible groups and teaching the importance of religion in American history.
Boston said the Florida measure was "the wrong way to go." He also is not confident in the future of Pennsylvania’s moment-of-silence bill.
As time passes beyond Sept. 11, Boston said, "cooler heads will prevail." While some of the ideas for bringing prayer to schools are perfectly acceptable, he emphasized, "amending the Constitution would be an overreaction."

Is Russell Simmons an Uncle Tom?Simmons, according to New York magazine writer Michael Wolff, is "a key member of Cuomo's posse." And last month, Cuomo bragged to Wolff that "Russell is more influential than Sharpton," setting the stage for an encore to the ugly racial politics that engulfed the city after the October 11 Democratic mayoral runoff.
The racial contract to kill Carl McCall's chances of becoming governor was awarded to Russell Simmons 10 months ago.During an interview Simmons accused McCall of ignoring minority firms doing business on Wall Street, as well as not hiring enough blacks and Latinos in his own office. Dismissing the New York State Common Retirement Fund, which McCall has transformed from an almost lily-white asset to one that now places 25 percent of its brokerage business with minority firms, Simmons quibbled. "I would guess about less than 1 percent of all that money was given to anyone black to manage," said Simmons, sounding like he understood the complexities of such business dealings. Stunned by Simmons's comments,13 black business leaders denounced the remarks as "disparaging and grossly inaccurate." "It is obvious from those remarks that you have a limited knowledge of Comptroller Carl McCall's impact on our business in the financial community," 13 of the executives stated in a letter to Simmons They pointed out that prior to McCall taking over as comptroller, "minority and women-owned financial firms were essentially shut out of [doing] business with the New York State Common Retirement Fund." Minority firms suffered, they charged.
"In 1993," they added, "the Fund, which at the time had assets of $56 billion, did not actively seek or encourage minority firms to bid on retirement Fund business. In fact, only a diminutive level of transactions was performed by the Fund with minority firms." But all that, the executives explained, "changed drastically" after McCall gained control of the Fund, which is valued at $130 billion today.
McCall tapped "numerous" minority firms for contracts involving asset management and private equity deals. The executives portrayed Simmons as misinformed, and blasted him for claiming that "in his job as State Comptroller, [McCall] didn't change anything"
One of Carl McCall's supporters who examined Russell Simmons's letter reiterated that it appeared to be a warning to McCall to bow out to avoid a divisive Democratic primary.

Journal axes gene research on Jews and PalestiniansA keynote research paper showing that Middle Eastern Jews and Palestinians are genetically almost identical has been pulled from a leading journal. Academics who have already received copies of Human Immunology have been urged to rip out the offending pages and throw them away. The paper, 'The Origin of Palestinians and their Genetic Relatedness with other Mediterranean Populations', involved studying genetic variations in immune system genes among people in the Middle East.
In common with earlier studies, the team found no data to support the idea that Jewish people were genetically distinct from other people in the region. In doing so, the team's research challenges claims that Jews are a special, chosen people and that Judaism can only be inherited.
Jews and Palestinians in the Middle East share a very similar gene pool and must be considered closely related and not genetically separate, the authors state. Rivalry between the two races is therefore based 'in cultural and religious, but not in genetic differences', they conclude.

Colleges taking a more scholarly approach to hip-hop Stanford will be offering a course on hip-hop music next fall. But Stanford is not alone in taking a scholarly approach to hip-hop, whose cultural influence stretches from fashion to movies to $1.8 billion in record sales last year. University of California-Berkeley has offered a class on the poetry and history of Tupac Shakur; University of California-Los Angeles is teaching an urban-language course through its anthropology department; and Harvard University will begin a hip-hop archive next year. Hip-hop, which has been around 30 years, has four pillars: rapping, deejaying, graffiti and break- or street-dancing.

Unbelievable: EEOC forces airport security to hire foreign Arabs from terrorist nationsIf the U.S. government really wants to protect us from murderous terrorists, why did it force an airline security company to hire non-citizen Muslims from terrorism-friendly nations to operate airport metal detectors?
And can we expect more of those kinds of wacky "anti-discrimination" rulings now that the federal government has taken over airport security?
Those are the questions being asked by Libertarians after a shocking news report revealed that the EEOC used "religious-bias" regulations to prevent potential terrorists from being removed from sensitive airport security jobs.

Capitalism Leads to HumanitarianismHere are excerpts from an article written by Lawrence Lindsay, an economic advisor to Pres Bush. It explains how the ethics of capitalism leads to more humanitarian concern.According to the American Assoc of Fundraising Counsel, in 2000 Americans gave Dollars $203bn to charitable organisations, or 2 per cent of gross domestic product, far surpassing the contributions of any other nation. Humanitarianism rests not just on wealth but on an ethos. And two aspects of the ethos of capitalism - materialism and individualism - are what make humanitarianism possible.
Materialism is the belief that the quality of one's life on earth is important: that life should be more than a daily struggle to meet immediate needs. This is important, for if one does not believe that the material conditions of life are important, no value exists in meeting the material needs of others.
The second ethic of capitalism that is necessary for humanitarianism is a belief in the individual. Individualism places value on the sin gle person apart from the value of the group. It requires rebuilding an individual's spirit. Humanitarianism is not the act of helping humanity in the collective - indeed, such an act is difficult to imagine. It is the act of helping to meet the needs of an individual or a number of individuals and thereby assisting humanity.
Communists often speak of the needs of humanity. But this does not make them humanitarians, for they never care about the needs of a single individual.
Indeed, it is communism's lack of caring for the individual that ultimately stopped communism from meeting material needs. As Margaret Chapman, founding president of the US-Russia Business Forum, wrote of the dying days of the Soviet Union: "It is often said people are willing to die for their country but not to work for it." Unlike communism or nationalism, humanitarianism is not advanced by anyone's heroic death. Humanitarianism is never that easy. It requires hard work and sacrifice to improve the life of another individual. It requires being there day in and day out.
Indeed, the ethic of communism or socialism works to undermine humanitarianism. If one is told that the state will care for the needs of the individual, individuals are absolved from the responsibility of caring for their fellows.
Individualism as an ethic defines the individual not only as the ultimate beneficiary but also as the ultimate problem-solver. While government can perform many important functions, it is hard to think of the state as humanitarian.
Paradoxical as it may seem, men and women who are free to pursue individualism and material wealth turn out to be the most compassionate of all.

Jet is celebrating its golden anniversary.
And even as many magazines struggle to remain afloat, industry experts and competitors generally are optimistic about Jet's future in the 21st century. Johnson, 83, chose the name of his weekly to simultaneously evoke a shade of Black and the speedy aircraft. It now has a circulation of about 950,000, although Johnson officials claim its actual readership is about 10 times that because of people sharing copies.

Pakistan's Jihad Fervor Replaced by Resentment "We had an idea that some foreign troops, some American troops and British troops, were in Afghanistan. We wanted to capture some American troops--it would be a great honor for us to capture a U.S. Army man. But when we entered the area, we never saw any foreigners. They were all Muslims. They were all Afghans. And nobody told us about the airstrikes, this carpet bombing."
Welcome to the 21st Century boys! What did they expect in war? A wrestling match?

A new hero of the press is born! Another anti-American kook fighting on the side of the Taliban! When will he get his book deal?U.S. Taliban suspect may face treason charge 2 others may be American.
The American military on Monday was holding a U.S. citizen who allegedly fought for the Taliban, and officials were negotiating to take custody of two others who claim to be Americans.
Americans who fight for the Taliban ultimately could be returned to the United States and charged with treason. Conviction could lead to a death sentence.
The captive, identified by his parents as John Phillip Walker Lindh, 20, of Marin County, Calif., told CNN he followed his faith to Afghanistan to help build a ''pure Islamic state.'' Lindh appeared on television bearded, disheveled and visibly in pain from wounds he suffered during a vicious prison uprising near the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif.
A senior U.S. official said U.S. special operations troops are negotiating with Northern Alliance commanders to turn over two more Taliban who also say they are American. Their names were not immediately made public.
Lindh said he had converted to Islam at 16, journeyed to Yemen at 18 to study Arabic and drifted to Afghanistan 6 months ago to help the Taliban. He was one of only 86 pro-Taliban survivors of the bloody insurrection at the Qala-I-Jangi fortress, where 600 of Lindh's comrades perished under U.S. bombs and Northern Alliance gunfire. Another American at the fortress, CIA officer Johnny ''Mike'' Spann, was killed in the uprising.
For the Bush administration, Lindh presents a quandary.
He is the first identified Taliban fighter to have been taken into custody by U.S. forces, a prime candidate for a trial by military tribunal. But President Bush's executive order creating such tribunals exempted American citizens from military trials. Legal analysts said that if U.S.-born Taliban were prosecuted for their deeds, it likely would be in regular federal courts here under criminal laws.
A senior Pentagon official said Monday that Lindh would be turned over to the Justice Department for questioning and potential arrest.
The charge? Possibly treason -- an offense rooted in the Constitution. Federal law makes it a crime for anyone ''owing allegiance to the United States,'' such as a citizen, to wage war against the United States or help its enemy.

Six Shaven Afghans Have Noses, Ears Cut Off
Gunmen waylaid six men in eastern Afghanistan and cut off their noses and ears, apparently for having shaved off their beards, an Afghan news service said on Tuesday.
The bandits stopped and searched a bus on Monday at Tangi Abresham on the highway from the capital Kabul to the eastern city of Jalalabad and ordered out all men who had shaved their beards, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said.
It said the noses and ears of six men -- all Afghans -- were cut off to punish them for shaving their beards in defiance of formerly ruling Taliban movement's order to all Afghan Muslims to grow long beards.
The six were taken to hospital in Jalalabad, AIP said. There was no immediate comment from hospital authorities.
On November 19, four journalists, two of them from Reuters, were killed when unknown gunmen ambushed their convoy at Tangi Abresham, some 55 miles east of Kabul.
AIP said several vehicles were looted in Tangi Abresham on Sunday and Monday and quoted drivers as saying they had seen seven bodies lying in the area.
The radical Taliban movement has lost control of most of Afghanistan in the past month after being battered by U.S.-led military strikes to punish it for sheltering Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden.
Bin Laden and his al Qaeda militant groups are Washington's prime suspects behind the September 11 hijack plane attacks in New York and Washington.

HAMAS DIDN'T BREAK FOR RAMADANThe attacks on Israel last weekend by the Islamic Jihad and Hamas group happened right smack-dab in the middle of Ramadan. So, is anyone out there still worried about violence during the holy period of Ramadan now? It's interesting how so many myths end up being destroyed. Straight from Rush.

WTC Victims May Have Been 'Vaporized' Three months after the World Trade Center attack, victims' families are being forced to face the ghastly possibility that many of the dead were "vaporized," as the medical examiner put it, and may never be identified. So far, fewer than 500 victims have been positively identified out of the roughly 3,000 feared dead. Sixty were identified solely through DNA.
Many victims will undoubtedly be identified. Nearly 10,000 body parts have been pulled from the mountains of mangled metal and matchstick-size splinters at ground zero.

The WTC attack was a hate crime! That is how we can get the leftist to join the war. If it is a hate crime, and a crime against the environment they will fight. We still cant let them find out that they would be on the same side as the US.

Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual). -Ayn Rand

The Flame Still Burns:Never ForgetThe fire at the World Trade Center is still burning almost three months after the attack, reports New Scientist. It should be captured and used as part of a future memorial.

Heretical IdeasI think he makes a great point. One of the common criticisms of US foreign policy in the Middle East is that it's "all about oil." But wait a minute--is that really the case? If all we care about in the Middle East is oil and our access to it, why do we support Israel? Surely if our sole foreign policy were purely oil-based, we would have cynically given in to Arab anti-semitism a long time ago and allowed Israel to cease to exist. Just something to think about. Good night.

I Dont Get IT: The Segway, which has to the most overhyped product launch ever. It looks like an expensive scooter. It will never replace the car, or even the bicycle. It is being aimed at the corporate market first, because they are the only ones dumb enough to buy a $3000 scooter. It should come as no surprise that the US Postal Service is lining up to purchase them. I see why the USPS needs financial help, when the business you run is losing money you do not go and buy a $3000 experimental item.

Snoop Get's His Own Line of Cars? The commercial success that comes with having a rap star attached to a product has come to the point that Snoop will be starting his own line of Cadillacs. Reportedly called a Snoop De Ville, with hydraulics, it will be a limited edition Cadillac. I will have to see this to believe it.

An AMERICAN TALIBAN ‘He’s a really good boy’ says the mom of the 20-year-old American captured in the Mazar-e-Sharif prison riot. Think he wants a Big Mac and fries? I give him credit at least for backing up his rhetoric with action. The rest of you that denounce the US as evil, have an obligation to follow.

The Moral Basis of CapitalismFound this great article defending capitalism as morally correct If capitalism is recognized as the only practical economic system-then why is it losing out to state control? The reason is that no one, neither on the left nor the right, is willing to defend capitalism as moral. Thus, both sides agree, whatever the practical value of capitalism, morality requires that the free market be reigned in by government regulations. The only disagreement between the two sides is over the number of regulations and the rate of their growth. What no one has grasped yet is that capitalism is not just practical but also moral. Capitalism is the only system that fully allows and encourages the virtues necessary for human life. It is the only system that safeguards the freedom of the independent mind and recognizes the sanctity of the individual.
The businessman's dedication to thought, persuasion, and reason is a virtue-a virtue that our lives and prosperity depend on. The only way to respect this virtue is to leave the businessman free to act on his own judgment. That is precisely what capitalism does. The essence of capitalism is that it bans the use of physical force and fraud in men's economic relationships
A system that sacrifices the self to "society" is a system of slavery-and a system that sacrifices thinking to coercion is a system of brutality.

African Artifacts Suggest an Earlier Modern Human The South African cave artifacts are now being generally accepted as the earliest evidence of such modern human behavior. If correct, these and other findings establish that Homo sapiens came out of Africa not only with fully modern anatomies, but also with at least 30,000 years of experience in modern behavior.

Blacks Against Racial Preferences Franklin, who was handpicked by President Clinton to head his Commission on Racial Relations, was one of the many star witnesses called to the stand to help Michigan's law school defend what is effectively a two-track admission system. Analyses of the school's admission data show that the relative odds of acceptance for black candidates, when averaged over six years, are 234.5 times better than those of whites with the same GPA and LSAT scores. This means that Michigan presumptively admits all but the worst black candidates and presumptively rejects all but the best white candidates...In other words, giving minority students a little leg up when they are academically equal to other candidates is one thing, but selectively lowering standards to satisfy a tacit quota is quite another.
A joint Washington Post/Harvard University/Kaiser Family Foundation national poll this summer found that 86 percent of blacks do not believe that race or ethnicity should "be a factor when deciding who is hired, promoted or admitted to college." These results parallel a Zogby survey of university students last year. About 77 percent of all students disagreed that "schools should give minority students preference in the admissions process." Whites opposed this by 79.5 percent, blacks by 51.9 percent, Hispanics by 71.4 percent, and Asians by 78.1 percent. Nor did these responses vary much with the wording of the question. "Students disagree with current trends in college," Zogby concluded.

The Tide is Turning Against the UN Since the vote was taken by United Nations members to oust the United States from the Human Rights Commission, numerous articles have been written condemning the action, but perhaps no article was more important than the one written by A. M. Rosenthal entitled "Agonies of dreams forsaken." Mr. Rosenthal's article is notable because he is a former editor of The New York Times who once covered the UN, but more importantly, because he has been a lifelong supporter and believer in the UN. He said his column was "among the most difficult I have written in a life-time of journalism." A.M. Rosenthal is a lifelong liberal. The UN and its dream of "world brotherhood" were the culmination of the hopes and dreams of the entire liberal movement. The reality that such a utopia cannot exist has now become so obvious that even they can no longer ignore the UN's pre-ordained fate.
The liberals thought they could force the world to be good. They thought they could dictate the standards by which we would all we have to live. In doing so, they tried to ignore two emerging and essential facts of the last and this new century; individual freedom and national cultural differences. Instead of making us all the same to live in harmony, they succeeded in creating greater misunderstanding and hatreds. People resist-as they should---being stripped of their national identity and history. The result is fear and mistrust. A world devoid of national identity is a world devoid of national leadership. The void that is created is filled by those ambitious enough to fill it. There is one solution to bringing peace and sanity back to a world community of responsible and accountable sovereign nations. The United States must leave this cesspool of corruption. When that occurs, it will be the final chapter of an idea gone terribly wrong and the effort to impose a world government that would suppress liberty and plunge us into a new Dark Age of serfdom and ignorance.

'When They Steal Your Land, They Steal Your Future' For generations, black families passed down the tales in uneasy whispers: "They stole our land."
Some of those whispered bits of oral history, it turns out, are true. In an 18-month investigation, the Associated Press documented a pattern in which black Americans were cheated out of their land or driven from it through intimidation, violence and even murder. The AP--in an investigation that included interviews with more than 1,000 people and the examination of tens of thousands of public records--documented 107 land-takings in 13 Southern and border states. In those cases alone, 406 black landowners lost more than 24,000 acres of farm and timber land plus 85 smaller properties, including stores and city lots. Today, virtually all of this property, valued at tens of millions of dollars, is owned by whites or corporations. In recent years, a handful of black families have sued to regain ancestral lands, but the cases were dismissed on grounds that statutes of limitations had expired. Some legal experts say redress for many land-takings may not be possible unless laws are changed.
The law should be changed to allow for civil suits.

Black leaders rally on racial rhetoric at conference Mayor Bill Campbell welcomed the audience for the State of the Black World Conference.., and the audience reciprocated, applauding his punch line that "while the rest of the country waves the flag of Americana, we understand we are not part of that." Here are some more choice quotes from black "leaders": "We don't owe America anything; America owes us."--Al Sharpton. "The extreme right wing has seized the government. Tonight, Ashcroft and the CIA and the FBI and Homeland Security and the IRS can work together, so look out. Because without a definition of who is a terrorist, anyone can be. . . . Martin Luther King could have been . . . Malcolm X, the Black Panthers. The right-wing media, the FBI, they are targeting our leadership. . . . If we can win in 2002, we can empower 40 of our black leaders. Maxine [Waters] becomes a No. 1 congressional leader . . . and we can put on trial the Ashcroft contingent."--Jesse Jackson
The conference has made a slow start, an organizer said early yesterday. In fact, she noted, only 400 people had preregistered, plunking down $35 to attend full days of meetings, seminars and planning sessions. "We are guessing there will be a lot more people who just show up for this," she said. "We are actually hoping."
The good news is that the attendance was low. These people are preaching to each other. The idea that Maxine Waters could become the #1 Dem, is a scary thought. I wonder if there was reason for Jesse to keep bringing up the IRS????

The Folly of Nation-Building in Afghanistan Similar plans since then have routinely failed. Indeed, since World War II the United States alone has provided $1 trillion in foreign aid to countries around the world. The result? According to the United Nations, 70 of the countries that received aid are poorer today than they were in 1980, and an incredible 43 are worse off than in 1970. Good intentions must be matched by an effective, non-corrupt administration on the receiving end. But even under those circumstances, there is no real evidence that the Marshall Plan alone was responsible for Europe's regeneration. U.S. assistance never exceeded 5 percent of the GDP of any recipient nation, and there seemed to be an inverse relationship between economic aid and economic recovery. In fact, France, Germany, and Italy all began to grow before the onset of the Marshall Plan, and Great Britain, the largest recipient of aid, performed the most poorly. The real lesson of the Marshall Plan is that the rule of law, property rights, free markets, and an entrepreneurial culture are what are necessary for economic success. Afghanistan has none of these things. And well-meaning senators in Washington can't make it otherwise.
More evidence that just throwing money at problems does not work.

Kennedys approved segregation of Army Kennedys approved
segregation of Army. Black troops separated from whites before '62 deployment at university. President John F. Kennedy ordered nearly 4,000 black soldiers to be segregated from a federal force of 20,000 troops deployed to quell a race riot at the University of Mississippi in 1962, according to the author of a new book who says the revelation is confirmed by Pentagon documents he discovered during his research.

SUDAN TRIED TO GIVE CLINTON FILES ON BIN LADEN VANITY FAIR has obtained letters and memorandums that document approaches made by Sudanese intelligence officials and other emissaries to members of the Clinton administration to share information about many of the 22 terrorists on the government's most-wanted list, including: Osama bin Laden. VANITY FAIR is set to unleash the story in January 2002 editions, publishing sources tell the Drudgereport. Andrewsullivan.com adds these comments. "The truth is that the Clinton administration was worse than incompetent when it came to preventing international terrorism: its policies were dangerously naïve, ineffective and counter-productive. As usual, none of the main players will ever concede error. Which is why the press will have to work even harder to nail their culpability and remind us more forcefully of the damage the 42d president did."
THE JANUARY ISSUE OF VANITY FAIR HITS NEWSSTANDS in New York on December 5 and nationally on December 11.

U.S. Presses Terror War in 7 Nations The Bush administration has quietly begun dispatching diplomatic, military, intelligence and law enforcement agents to Asia and Africa to lay the groundwork for the next front in its war against terrorism, taking aim at Al Qaeda hubs in at least seven countries,...Several administration officials cited the Philippines, Somalia and Yemen as top priorities, but they also mentioned Malaysia, Indonesia and the former Soviet republics of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan...Bush pledged tens of millions of dollars to aid the Philippines in its fight against terrorism and sent at least 22 U.S. military and counter-terrorism advisors there in November for three weeks...If the other nations cooperate, U.S. officials will provide intelligence, guidance, investigative and financial assistance, and, perhaps in some cases, military support, the officials said. If they do not cooperate, authorities are considering a range of options, from covert operations to, as a last resort, military force, the officials said.
Bush is setting up the Phillipines and Sudan as examples of the carrot, and Afghanistan and Iraq as examples of the stick. The carrot only works if they fear the stick. Bush is building back up US credibility with other nations. It is better to be feared than loved.